Conventionally, a forming equipment, such as a thermoforming equipment, which forms a laminate by press-forming thermoplastic sheet material and subsidiary material such as a fibrous substance in one body, employs a method wherein after the thermoplastic sheet material that is heated and softened is formed by an upper and a lower mold, and after a formed product is taken out manually or by a device that can take it out from the molds, the subsidiary material is placed on the predetermined position of the lower mold. Then, the next heated thermoplastic sheet material is transported and a next forming is carried out.
In this method the subsidiary material is manually placed in the lower mold and a worker does this work close to the molds and in the forming press. For this reason the heated sheet material cannot be transported into the forming press while the molded product is being taken out and the subsidiary material is being placed in the lower mold. Thus there is a problem in that the cycle-time for pressing cannot be shortened.
One method to shorten the cycle-time is, for example, one wherein a forming equipment and a trimming press which use lower molds of the same architecture are installed side-by-side, and a turntable is used for exchanging one mold for the other of the two lower molds, such that trimming and preparing the subsidiary material can be carried out using a lower mold while simultaneously the pressing that requires time is carried out using the other mold (see Patent Document 1).
However, this method has a problem in that it needs a large circular space for a table to turn.
Another method is to use equipment for temporary lamination wherein the equipment allows the material that is to be pressed to move backward and forward by a first and a second carriage and perpendicularly to the movement of a press for temporary lamination, which press is movable upward and downward (see Patent Document 2).
Also, there is an injection molding machine that comprises a first and a second station for preparation for a molding operation on both sides of a molding station, which station has a clamping device for a mold, and a first and a second shuttle carriage, wherein the first shuttle carriage moves between the molding station and the first preparation station for a molding operation, and the second shuttle carriage moves between the molding station and the second preparation station for a molding operation (see Patent Document 3).
By using the first and the second carriages that move backward and forward perpendicularly to the press for temporary lamination, such as in the equipment for temporary lamination, or by using the first shuttle carriage that moves between the forming station and the first preparation station for a forming operation, and the second shuttle carriage that moves between the station for forming and the second preparation station for a forming operation, such as in the injection forming machine, a cycle-time of a machine can be shortened even though the working space that is used is limited.    Patent Document 1: Publication of Laid-open Application No. 2005-125376    Patent Document 2: Publication of Laid-open Application No. 2001-191316    Patent Document 3: Publication of Laid-open Application No. 2004-345328